barrel sample party

aaron will write a post that does our barrel sample party justice in a day or two. for now, put up with this video!




Looking back that A-hole Aaron (me) never did get around to wrapping up the report on the pinot barrel tasting. To put the wrap up simply - we had a good 12-18 people through the garage for barrel sampling of our pinot as well as a number of pinots from CA, OR, NZ and FR - 8 in total. We made a point of keeping out samples from both the neutral and new oak as well as the blend that we are aiming for. The overall consensus is was:

A) everyone was blown away by how different the wine out of the two barrels tasted - I think the general assumption was that this was one of the differences that was more marketing than real difference, a subtlety that Only a "trained" pallet could discern.

B) everyone was blow away by how much the blend of the two complemented each other and made for a wine in which the grapes jump back out to center stage again.

C) We felt that we are actually on to something. Both Dan and I were humbled by the true Burgandy that we had in the fold with the other wines but also really excited by the fact that our wine fit nicely in with the rest of those we tasted. With the last of the pre-bottling racking behind us we are now just in the sit back and wait stage w/the Pinot. Bottling in August - we hope to see you there.